Wednesday, March 31, 2010

My wife, Varsha, gets peeved whenever the attendant at the cash counter offers toffees instead of change. She refuses to accept the toffee-currency and has even offered to pay them back in toffees. But Nana Patekar in the forthcoming release Tum Milo To Sahi does better, he offers a sandal.

I strongly support my wife (and Nana Patekar) in her endeavour against this illegal tender. The reasons:

- Neither the Parliament of India nor the Reserve Bank of India have designated toffees (of any denomination) as legal tender, therefore we are not legally bound to accept it and it is within our rights to reject any such form of pseudo-currency.

- The cost price of the toffee for the retailer is lesser than the MRP. Therefore, it means that everytime a shopkeeper hands us a Re 1 toffee, he stands to make a profit of around 20 paise (or whatever the margin is). Therefore it is in their interest to insist on toffees instead of change.

- For those who don't have much of a liking for toffees (or the brand of toffees that they offer) it is a lose-lose scenario.

- It is quite unlikely that the supermarket/shop would accept a payment made in toffees (or a sandal in Nana's case). If no take, then why give?

I agree that could be a genuine shortage of coins in the market, given that so many of them end up stored for years in piggy banks.

Well, here is a business idea, for anyone interested:

A virtual piggy bank. You go to a supermarket make purchases for Rs 99 and pay Rs 100 in cash. As usual, no change. But you don't have to settle for that unwanted toffee. Just take out your virtual piggy bank card and the attendant will swipe it to add the Re 1 to your virtual piggy bank account. So every time there's a shortage of change, the money gets added to your account. And one day when you have accumulated enough balance on your card you can redeem it.

If this doesn't sound very feasible, here's a simpler way out: Use your credit/debit card. But don't take that toffee (unless you want to).

Monday, March 22, 2010

I stay on the 12th floor of a 14-storey apartment building. This morning I had to rush to work and was waiting for the elevator and it stopped at every floor before it could reach mine.

No, as in the new Tata Sky Plus (Tata Sky+) ad my wife isn't to blame. In fact I made a premptive purchase of a Tata Sky Plus DVR just before I got married.

And this has been happening quite frequently ever since the ad in question (see below) began airing on TV. I suspect that is either disgruntled women (the IPL season is on) or inspired kids (more likely) pressing all the buttons. Whatever the reason, it's me doing the waiting.

The guys at O&M should think of the consequences when they come up with ideas that give people ideas (they also have wives at home, unless they already have a Tata Sky Plus or multiple TVs)

Sunday, March 21, 2010

It has been the longest pause on Cutting the Chai since I first began blogging almost five years back. In fact if you look at the archives, February 2010 will be the only month that has gone postless since May 2005. And there were some pretty important reasons behind my absence here (though I had been tweeting a little). I got married.

Yes, the Chaiwallah has finally got a Chaiwali (though she prefers that, at home, I make the tea).

Its been a crazy last few months, juggling between work and arrangements for the wedding, now we are somewhat settling in into the new scheme of things. After a small ceremony here in Delhi (actually Noida) we went to Shillong (my home town) and then back to Delhi and then to Indore (her home town) and didn't even have enough leaves left to plan a honeymoon (I'll have to pay for that).

The wedding went off fine and with family and friends around, it was the best time of our lives (yet). Only I goofed up missing out on inviting some friends (my mother ensured that all relatives were). Apologies buddies.

To make things simpler we opted for a marriage according to Arya Samaj rituals but that didn't spare me the ignominy (that Bengali bridegrooms have to suffer) of wearing the tupur, courtesy my sis-in-law (No, I'm not going to post those pictures, atleast not here).

I was also live tweeting from my marriage ceremony. Here's what my Twitter feed read that night: